I ride a skate banana with burton missions (pretty stiff bindings). I'm 5'7, 135lb. The skate banana is 149cm. The binding position is at the widest allowable. Angle is at 13/-13..

anyways...I can't ollie. I can get air by jumping up with both legs but I know that's not the proper way. When I try to flex the board and pop off the tail, I just can't hold the energy on my back leg. I can't flex the board enough for it to spring me into a pop....

Is this just a strength thing? What I really want to do is just pop and do a front side 180 on the flats, transitioning or off a little bump or whatever.

First, jumping with both legs isn't "improper", it's just not ollying. There are situations where popping is the proper thing to do.

Second, can you ollie better when you're not moving? I personally find it easier to ollie when I'm not moving, becuase when I'm moving I'm hesitant about throwing my weight onto my back leg. If so, that's just practice.

First, jumping with both legs isn't "improper", it's just not ollying. There are situations where popping is the proper thing to do.

Second, can you ollie better when you're not moving? I personally find it easier to ollie when I'm not moving, becuase when I'm moving I'm hesitant about throwing my weight onto my back leg. If so, that's just practice.

I also see lots of people not shift there weight forward much first. So the weight shift backwards is not as dramatic. Which ends up being a very small pop.

Other thing I see a lot is people trying to throw their weight back, but they are very straight legged.

I ride a skate banana with burton missions (pretty stiff bindings). I'm 5'7, 135lb. The skate banana is 149cm. The binding position is at the widest allowable. Angle is at 13/-13..

anyways...I can't ollie. I can get air by jumping up with both legs but I know that's not the proper way. When I try to flex the board and pop off the tail, I just can't hold the energy on my back leg. I can't flex the board enough for it to spring me into a pop....

Is this just a strength thing? What I really want to do is just pop and do a front side 180 on the flats, transitioning or off a little bump or whatever.

Narrow your stance, that's probably like 24" or more which is ridiculous given you are 5'7". I am the same height and I rock about a 22.5" which is on the wider side.

The way you describe your ollie sounds like you are trying to do it in discrete steps; it sounds like you are trying to press the tail and pogo stick off it. Ollie it like a skateboard, get low, start to pop up and as you start to get light, snap space right outside the binding and let it boost you up.

As the others have said, make sure you send your inertia forward first. From a standing position, drop your legs and weight onto your nose until it's loaded, and in the same motion switch your weight to the back and lift up your front foot.

I'm 5'7 as well and use a 22.5 ish stance like Cheese, anything wider just limits your range of motion.

And if you can fit into skinny chicken leg jeans, it's probably time to bulk up those quads up.

I think your stance could be too wide, but it also depends on how long your legs are as far as I'm concerned, it's not totally height based so I can't advise that it's definitely too wide without knowing your body type in addition to you height. That said, I personally find it hard to ollie in boots that are too stiff, have too much forward lean, or are too tall. My leg from hip to knee is actually rather long for my height, and in my opinion, a little disproportioned in comparison to the length of my leg from knee to ankle. One thing that gets SO in the way for me is if a boot hits my calf muscle, at that point it interrupts my muscle use and flexibility in that area and it's also an indication of being too damn high on my shin hindering my ankle flexibility. I can't use a boot taller than 11 inches in total height and has to have a flex of less than 4 in general ratings (but I'm light and a girl plus this is what works for me, may not be the same for everyone.) But I need to be able to get a nice bend going and get some good balanced pressure on my tail (but not too much) and then use all that momentum to pop off the tail and then follow through with picking my knees up toward my chest. On another note, I'm about 5'6" 108 lbs and have been regularly riding a 140 ride OMG with about a 21.5" stance which I'm starting to feel is a pinch too narrow actually. I just picked up a new GNU B-street in a 141, I'm trying the stance out at about 22.5/23. I'm a pinch nervous to see how it affects things if any....

Anyway, I'm going to venture to say you just haven't found your sweet spot, I don't think it's a leg weakness or inability, I think you just need to find what works for you. Practice at home in a safe area just popping up in the air strapped into your board, make some adjustments until something feels like it clicks, when I used to work at a surf/snow shop we'd put boards on and jump and 180/360 in the store all the time, turns out it was good practice good luck!